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International trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) are considered the key drivers of global value chains. About 11 percent of economic activity (GDP) in the U.S. is dependent on foreign markets. But when relations sour between countries as they have between two of the world’s largest economies, foreign investments can dry up and put thousands of jobs in jeopardy. That’s why reports that Chinese investments in the U.S. have plunged nearly 90 percent under President Trump’s watch is quite disconcerting. According to data by the Rhodium Group, Chinese FDI in the U.S. has fallen from a peak of $46.5 billion in 2016 to just $5.4 billion last year, sharply reversing a trend of rising investments from the Far East. Much of the blame for the massive decline can be pinned on amped up regulations, a battery of tariffs and growing unease by the U.S. on China’s expanding global influence.

The apathy is not mutual though, with American FDI into China only declining slightly from $14 billion 2017 to $13 billion in 2018. After lagging for years, China managed to overtake the U.S. in two-way FDI for the first time in 2015– the balance has now shifted back to the U.S….CLICK for complete article

What will legal weed look like in the next few years? These cannabis market predictions are already coming true.

With new products, untapped markets, and better access to research and capital than ever before, the cannabis market is in the midst of another record-breaking year of growth.

Overall, 2018 was a groundbreaking year of growth for the cannabis market. But expect the industry to expand through 2019 and into 2020 as a volatile market becomes more stable and mainstream, encouraging unprecedented investor and consumer confidence.

Investors can find plenty of fundamental reasons to think the 10-year bull market is coming to an end, with retail fund outflows, crashing yields, and the destruction of globalization all perfectly capable of signaling the next recession. However, technical price structure may offer stronger clues to market direction as we near the end of a prosperous but turbulent decade. And right now, this arcane venue is flashing warning signs that could translate into much lower stock prices.

Let’s look at three technical elements that predict the S&P 500 has topped out or will top out in coming months. All revolve around perfectly placed 2019 price action and broad brush pattern readings asserting that the rally has reached a level that can’t be sustained in the second half. What these numbers don’t reveal is the ultimate downside if bears resume control of the ticker tape, especially after more than nine months of binary price swings….CLICK for complete article

Ford waited until today to report its second-quarter new-vehicle deliveries in the US. So now we know what happened to total US auto sales in the second quarter and in the first half this year, and it wasn’t pretty. New-vehicle deliveries, fleet and retail combined, fell 1.5% in Q2 compared to Q2 last year, to 4.5 million vehicles; and in the first half fell by 2.4% to 8.4 million vehicles.

This puts new vehicle sales on track to fall below 17 million units for the year. This would be the worst level since 2014. According to my own estimates, new vehicle sales in 2019 will decline to 16.95 million units, roughly on par with 1999, in a horribly mature market, whose two-decade stagnation was interrupted by the excitement of a collapse and recovery back to stagnation levels…CLICK for complete article

With marijuana still classified as a Schedule I drug by the U.S. federal government, few institutional investors have been willing to write checks to cannabis companies. Despite the barriers, this hasn’t stopped the rise of a new clique of sector-specific firms that have a deep understanding of the nuances and challenges of investing in such a highly regulated and fragmented market.

The value of venture deals in the cannabis space has really taken off over the past few years, from a couple of hundred thousand bucks to billions of dollars currently.

PitchBook Data, a SaaS company that delivers data for private capital markets, started keeping tabs on the marijuana industry in 2012. Back then, the sector only recorded two VC deals worth a combined $300,000.

Fast forward to 2017 and venture capital funds flowing had multiplied more than a hundredfold to $378 million. A year later, the sector reached an important milestone with VC deals hitting the $1-billion mark….CLICK for complete article

The streaming revolution has unleashed a wave of disruption across the global music industry. But stock investors could reap longterm gains by buying shares of four major players positioned to dramatically grow in size and reap rich profits. That will happen as the streaming market nearly triples in size to $45 billion over the next two decades, according to a report by Goldman Sachs. The big winners may include Vivendi, with a market value of $31 billion, Sony Corp. (SNE), at $64 billion, Spotify, at $29 billion, and Tencent Holdings, at $24 billion, as music listeners switch from free to paid services, Goldman says in a story by Business Insider outlined in the story below.

Analysts’ optimism stems from faster-than-expected adoption of paid streaming services like Spotify Technology SA (SPOT) and Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) Apple Music. Goldman now expects the recorded music space to grow more than previous forecasts, roughly two and a half times from the current size at $19 billion. Analysts attribute the upbeat outlook in part to positive revisions to profit forecasts for industry leaders such as Universal Media Group, Warner Music and Spotify….CLICK for complete article